These Hearts are Watermelon

Margaret Ann Graber, Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Abstract

This thesis examines the construction and deconstruction of home. These poems explore this theme largely through the poet's relation to geography and the natural world of the Great Lakes region, friends and family, experiences centered in human interconnectedness, traveling, the impact of technology, orientation in a cosmic space, the ways in which culture shapes and reshapes the one living inside it, and how in a 21st century world, one must still seek to show compassion for other living creatures. Through the utilization of metaphor, narrative, and imagination, this thesis journeys from the poet's home of Indiana to her ancestral roots of Ireland before returning to America with a more complex sense of identity as well as a renewed vision for the future.